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Tim Skold
Biography Tim Sköld Tim Sköld was born on December 14, 1966 in Skövde, a small city in Västergötland, Sweden. The 5'10" blonde has just one sibling, a sister named Linda. Tim grew up in a very liberal setting as the son of a 15 year old Mother and a Father trying to get by as a semi professional drummer. At age 11, Tim was motivated to get in a playback band. Tim's band would play for people at school meetings with Kiss, David Bowie and Sweet songs playing on a cassette player. Tim first rented a bass by the month at age 12 and by the time he was 13, he was playing and singing in his first real band. Tim later met guitarist Harry Cody at a New Year's Eve party and they formed a creative partnership which would last for many years to come. Their dream was to go to the U.S. to be rock stars. At age 17 after 2 years of studying Process Engineering at a boarding school, Tim moved into his own apartment and took a factory job making military equipment. A half year later he was drafted into the army. He brought his bass to the base and sneaked in to the shower stalls to practice after everyone went to sleep. Tim also kept rehearsing with Harry on the weekends and once out of the army, took on many odd jobs including library assistant and gardener at a bathhouse. At 19, Tim and Harry talked a Swedish Record Company into allowing them to make a record which they could use as a demo to reach the American market. Starting off as Shylock, their determination soon paid off in the form of Kingpin. Kingpin During the early 80's, bassist Tim Tim (changing his name from Tim Sköld ) and guitarist Harry Cody formed the glam rock band Kingpin in their native Skövde, Sweden, inspired by the flamboyant hard rock bands flowing out of L.A. and UK acts such as Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Zodiac Mindwarp. The band kicked off their career with a 7" single titled 'Shout It Out' (which hit #1 back in Sweden) in 1987 after drafting vocalist Zinny J. San and drummer Stixx Galore a short time later. Kingpin released their only Swedish album 'Welcome To Bop City' 12" LP the following year and later uprooted to L.A. and changed their name to Shotgun Messiah. Shotgun Messiah Discovered and signed by Cliff Cultreri at Relativity Records Kingpin changed their name to Shotgun Messiah (due to a San Francisco-based band holding the rights to the name Kingpin), remixed and re-packaged the album, and self-titled it as their international debut in 1989. Zan was let go soon after having MTV smash hits such as 'Don't Care 'Bout Nothin' and 'Shout It Out' whilst the band was in progress of making a follow up to their debut self-titled album. They hired a new bassist, Bobby Lycon, from New York, and on Harry Cody's suggestion Tim Tim took on the lead vocals. At this time, Tim Tim, whose role was now frontman, went by the name Tim Skold, dropping the umlaut. They released Second Coming in 1992, which was enthusiastically received by the media and came to be their most successful album to date. Two singles were released from that album, 'Heartbreak Blvd.' and 'Living Without You'. Shortly after, the band followed up with an E.P. entitled I Want More which contained some punk covers along with re-recorded songs from their previous album 'I Want More', 'Babylon' and an acoustic version of 'Nobody's Home'. Soon after this release, Shotgun Messiah were down to two original members, Skold and Cody, seeing the departure of Stixx and Lycon. Still under contract with Relativity Records, Skold and Cody decided to go back to Sweden for the recording of the 3rd and final Shotgun Messiah album, leaning towards the industrial end of heavy metal and naming it Violent New Breed. The album was released in 1993 and is now considered a cult classic due to the ‘before it’s time’ incorporation of industrial influences. However, at the time of release it received mixed reviews and continued public indifference eventually convinced the two to call it a day, leading Tim to embark on his solo project, Skold. Skold After the departure of Shotgun Messiah, Tim went on to pursue a solo career. Writing all songs and playing all instruments himself, his self-titled debut album, Skold, was released in 1996 by record label RCA (and co-produced with Scott Humphrey). Promoting his debut album, SKOLD went on a short tour with (and in part as support for) Genitorturers. Some of the songs on the SKOLD album were used in movies like Disturbing Behavior ('Hail Mary'), Universal Soldier: The Return ('Chaos') and Playstation game, Twisted Metal ('Chaos'). During his solo career, Skold also did remixes for several bands such as Prong, Nature and Drown. He also met KMFDM frontman Sascha Konietzko during his time in the studio and even went to join his band a short time later. KMFDM After his short-lived solo career, Skold went on to join KMFDM in 1997. His first involvement with KMFDM was on the album, Symbols and actually contributed to it with just one song, 'Anarchy', a hit in clubs, which he wrote and did vocals for. His next album with KMFDM entitled, Adios was released in 1999 and saw Skold taking on a bigger role in the band not just as vocalist, writer and bassist, but also as producer, engineer and programmer alongside Konietzko. Following the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre incident (which happened the same day Adios was released) and the stigma of the shooters being avid fans. The band went on a short hiatus, forming the project mdfmk in 2000. Just a couple of years later, KMFDM reformed adding Lucia Cifarelli of mdfmk (and formerly of the band Drill) to the line-up and released Skold's last album with KMFDM entitled Attak. Due to Tim's commitment as producer for Marilyn Manson's 2003 album, The Golden Age of Grotesque, he was not able to feature in the line-up for KMFDM's 2002 Sturm & Drang tour (- he did however make two guest appearances on June 4th and 5th). mdfmk Founded by Sascha Konietzko and Skold, they went on to release just one album simply titled 'mdfmk' released in 2000 on Universal Records. The band, with Lucia Cifarelli, took on a more futuristic sound, which also contained hints of trance and europop, primarily in the style of production, leaning towards, what is now commonly referred to as ‘electronica’. Mdfmk also featured all three sharing vocal duties. Their song 'Missing Time' was used in the animated movie, Heavy Metal 2000. Skold, Konietzko and Cifarelli went on to reform KMFDM shortly after that. ohGr Skold, on bass, joined ohGr, a project of Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre, for the tour in support of its first album, 'Welt', in 2001. Marilyn Manson Skold's involvement with Marilyn Manson began as producer for the single 'Tainted Love' which featured on the 2001 teen movie, Not Another Teen Movie, as well as the Not Another Teen Movie Soundtrack. Manson and Skold went on to score the movie Resident Evil, released in 2002. Several tracks are featured on the Resident Evil Movie Soundtrack. Skold officially joined Marilyn Manson in 2002 after the departure of bassist Twiggy Ramirez. At this time, not only was Tim the bassist for the band, but he was also credited with an impressive list of production talents such as producer, digital editing, artwork, electronics, drum programming and beats, along with playing guitar, keyboards, accordion and synthesizer bass for the Marilyn Manson 2003 release, The Golden Age Of Grotesque. He is described by Manson as, "the power that attitude brings to an album". More of his production talents can be seen on the band's 2004 release, Lest We Forget: The Best Of, where Skold, besides being the producer, took on the role of lead guitarist and sang backup vocals on the cover version of Personal Jesus, which featured on the best of record and was also released as a single. Coinciding with the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D in October 2006, Manson and Skold contributed a cover of 'This Is Halloween' to The Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack, which Skold did all the music for, while Manson sang the vocals. This time also saw the start of work on Marilyn Manson’s sixth studio album entitled Eat Me, Drink Me. The album was released worldwide on June 5th, 2007. Through the years with Marilyn Manson, Skold continues to prove he is a strong force to be reckoned with, becoming Manson's right hand man. It has now been confirmed by Marilyn Manson that Sköld will be playing guitar on the upcoming tour promoting the new album, while bass will be handled by Rob Holliday (formerly guitarist/bass player for Curve, Gary Numan, the Mission and the Prodigy). Links The Official Unofficial Tim Skold webpage The Sychophant